Abrasives are often used to clean and/or polish hard surfaces, such as teeth, household fixtures and goods, and the like. Further, such abrasives can also be used in conjunction with personal care compositions, for example as exfoliation products for skin and nails. Generally, the particle size, crystallinity, hardness, and structure, as well as other factors determine whether certain abrasives are more suitable for cleaning or polishing of a surface. The selection of abrasives for any purpose likewise accounts for the surface properties and degree of accompanying mechanical force. Cleaning abrasives are typically used to debride debris, impurities, and stains from a surface. Polishing abrasives create a smooth, glossy appearance on the target surface and can provide further stain removal.
To maximize the effectiveness of a composition that polishes, and preferably also cleans, it is desirable to have increasingly finer or smaller particles contact a surface during processing to provide polishing, also referred to as lapping. Maximizing contact of the particles with the surface provides more efficacious cleaning and/or polishing, particularly when the sequence and duration of contact of different abrasives can be controlled. Further, controlling the physical orientation of polishing particles with respect to the surface is desirable to enhance efficacy of the abrasives. However, there are significant challenges to using both cleaning and polishing abrasives in a single product to achieve the desired effect. Compatibilizing different abrasives in a single carrier can pose difficulties. Additionally, staging release of different species of abrasives, particularly when they are combined in a single product, poses a challenge. Thus, compositions and methods that improve the cleaning and/or polishing of a target surface are desirable.